Time is running out. Eight months is all the craftspeople with their expert hands are given to fashion a wedding dress for an English princess; their work takes place in utter secrecy. The stories of their lives marked by silence and tears unfold in a sewing shop in Paris, city of haute couture; in Alençon, kingdom of lacemakers; in Mumbai, land of embroiderers. Bringing together these far-flung places in one spectacular set, director and playwright Caroline Guiela Nguyen weaves together tales about relationships of domination and violence. As intimate and riveting as a TV drama, the split-screen images of LACRIMA jump back and forth between times and continents.
An essential voice in contemporary French theatre, Nguyen focuses her gaze on those who are often invisible to our eyes. In a hyperrealist rush that masterfully incorporates poetic elements, she creates characters who reflect the richness and true complexity of the world.
